Orion Nebula?

[CumbrianGadgey]

Oh, dear,

It just seems to keep coming at me, tonight and I still haven't even vaguely tried to align my (new to me) scope. Consequently, when I tried to look for the Orion nebula, I had to hump the scope up the slope of the garden, roughly point it at the pole star and start looking South of Orion's belt. My luck is really in, tonight. The spotter scope showed a blur, so I took a peek.

What I saw looked to me like a seagull with a single bright star in the body and a row of three stars in one wing, if you get what I mean. Is this the Orion Nebula? I was only using a 25mm BST starguider, so magnification would be about x40. The 'seagull' filled a good part of the field of view.

One of these days, I won't be so impetuous and I'll actually know what I'm looking at!

anyway, I must dash. I want to look at the Pleiades.

[rory]

Sounds like you got it yes, but you need to look at it for a while and let the details emerge.
Have a butchers at astro sketches, they give a realistic version of what things look like.

here my effort  from a while back.

[Druid]

You might find this helpful ... 

http://www.cambridge.org/features/turnleft/pages/seasonal_skies/jan-mar/in_orion_the_orion_nebula_M42_and_M43.htm

[Mondlicht13]

Excellent link.

Thank you very much

Mike

[HeadInTheStars]

I hope this is not an inaproprate place to post this but it seemed a waste to post a new thread and was unsure of topic to post it in. I know where orion nebula is. I've seen it in 10x50 binos and in my 9x50 finderscope which is proven to be alligined. However in my 3" reflector with a 25mm ep about 28x I cant see it at all only 2 stars close together. I gather that this is the two stars often "on top" of it on charts and I'm not collecting enough light to see it. Does anyone have any options or info to validate this? Thanks in advanced!!!

[Druid]

It's a wonderful sight. 

[Druid]

I am clueless about processing though, as you can probably tell ...